Did HBO pull something fishy with their replays of "Real Time" this weekend?

[SlackerInc]

I am a cordcutter, so I subscribe “over the top” to their streaming-only service, HBO Now, which generally makes Real Time episodes available in the wee hours of Saturday morning (I would love it if I could just watch live, but for some reason, that’s not an option). I watched part of the episode on Saturday–probably about half of it. Then I got busy and couldn’t get back to it until Sunday. At that point, it wasn’t listed any more! All the others were there, but the list stopped at June 3, and June 10 was no longer listed.

So I fired off a “WTF” email to HBO. First there was the reply labelled “auto response”, saying simply that they would get back to me soon. But then the “real” response was also obviously automated–or maybe some human being glanced at it and did a quick cut-and-paste job of “How to find content on HBO Now” or some such crap. I hate this: it seems like this is the standard any more when you ask a question or have a problem, that you have to persevere at least one more round before anyone actually *looks *at the email you wrote. Like, “okay, we didn’t get rid of him yet, let’s see what this guy wants <sigh>”.

Anyway, they did respond to my irritated reply (“That is not an answer to my question. Maybe the second time someone human will actually read and respond to it?”) with an actual response:

Thank you for your reply. I am sorry for the inconvenience concerning this matter. I can certainly provide some more information into this matter.

Normally Real Time with Bill Maher is available the Saturday after its original airing; however, there were some technical issues with this particular episode. A solution is currently being engineered to make this episode available for streaming as soon as possible, but at this time I do not have any information about when this episode will be posted again. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to us again.

So, that’s kinda weird, since as I say it was there before these “technical issues” apparently waylaid it. But hey, on Monday I saw that it had returned, and I was happy to finally get a chance to watch the rest.

Then, near the end, I encountered an obvious “cut”. You see these all the time in other late night talk shows, which are taped earlier that afternoon. If an interview runs long, they will find something to cut out, but not necessarily as artistically as in a movie or a TV show with more time to work with in the editing room. On one of those shows, no big deal.

But this show originally aired live. So WTF is a cut doing in there? :mad: The replay should just be a recording of what went on the air, uncut and unchanged. :dubious:

Anyone who has HBO, you can check this out for yourself. Go to about 48:30, or a little earlier if you want to have a few seconds to watch for it. Right after Bill makes the “clown meat” joke, and they show Tom Morello cracking up, you suddenly hear the audience laughter in the background stop cold, and they jump to Bill telling the next joke, which (at least now) is about photos of presidents in the White House colonnade (which Bill incorrectly calls “the Rose Garden”).

So was there some kind of controversy, or legal issue, with a joke in there? I Googled and couldn’t find anything. Does anyone still have the live airing on their DVR?

[SlackerInc]

Addendum: none of you were any help, LOL, but someone on Previously TV informed me that they cut out a joke about guns. Ahhh…of course–why didn’t I think of that, since the whole show was there on Saturday but not on Sunday. I’m pissed at HBO for the censorship, and also for lying to me (“technical issues”, my ass).

[Loach]

@SlackerInc

Addendum: none of you were any help, LOL, but someone on Previously TV informed me that they cut out a joke about guns. Ahhh…of course–why didn’t I think of that, since the whole show was there on Saturday but not on Sunday. I’m pissed at HBO for the censorship, and also for lying to me (“technical issues”, my ass).

You assume it was HBO but maybe Maher felt bad about the joke in retrospect?He doesn’t seem to be the kind to keep quiet about being censored against his will.

[SlackerInc]

@Loach

You assume it was HBO but maybe Maher felt bad about the joke in retrospect?He doesn’t seem to be the kind to keep quiet about being censored against his will.

I wonder if he even knows? It only affects people who watched it online Sunday or later, which may be a pretty small group. Though someone on PTV said they watched it “On Demand” on Monday and the joke was still there, oddly enough.

I also think he would consider censoring this joke to kind of be pretty much the opposite of his whole point. Here’s how it was described on PTV–pretty much everyone commenting there agreed that this would be exactly the thing to *leave *rather than cut:

They edited out an entire joke about guns, probably due to the Orlando shooting.

The New Rule went as follows (accompanied by a picture of a display wall of handguns with the caption “Uzi Does It”):
“Someone has to cheer up the good people of America’s hand gun industry. I know stocks are down this month on lower sales but don’t be sad it’s only 3 months until school starts.”
This was followed by some laughter but basically muted response with a shot of Andrew Ross Sorkin cringing in response, followed by some clapping.
Bill follows with “I love it after they come around after a while”.

[troub]

I watched it on HBO last night and noticed the obvious cut. Thanks for finding out what it was about.

Still seems weird that it would be cut, or that Bill would want it cut himself. There’s a point behind that joke, and it was once again reinforced. And, in fact, earlier this week articles were all over talking about how gun sales go up massively after this kind of thing. Which is all kinds of fucked up. If anyone gets offended by this “joke,” they should really be offended by how disturbingly true it is.

[SlackerInc]

@troub

I watched it on HBO last night and noticed the obvious cut. Thanks for finding out what it was about.

Still seems weird that it would be cut, or that Bill would want it cut himself. There’s a point behind that joke, and it was once again reinforced. And, in fact, earlier this week articles were all over talking about how gun sales go up massively after this kind of thing. Which is all kinds of fucked up. If anyone gets offended by this “joke,” they should really be offended by how disturbingly true it is.

Exactly right. I just really have to wonder if Bill knows this happened. I tweeted at him to tell him, but of course with millions of followers, what are the chances this will get through?

[Loach]

@SlackerInc

Exactly right. I just really have to wonder if Bill knows this happened. I tweeted at him to tell him, but of course with millions of followers, what are the chances this will get through?

Since he is also the Executive Producer I find it hard to believe he doesn’t know. He’s been with HBO a long time. I doubt they would try to sneak it by him and hope no one notices. If I were a betting man (and I am) I would bet that it was a bit of self censorship. That’s just a feeling I have no information either way.

[SlackerInc]

If it were literally almost anyone else but Bill Maher, that would sound very plausible to me.

[Loach]

@SlackerInc

If it were literally almost anyone else but Bill Maher, that would sound very plausible to me.

Which is the same way I feel about him letting it happen silently. If he was censored against his wishes he would be attacking whoever did it. It happening without his knowledge does not seem plausible either.

[SlackerInc]

It’s plausible to me. It’s just the replays. There’s very little about it online–not sure there’s anything other than what I’ve kicked up.